Stump Day
by Elfpen
Summary: Hiccup took the island of Berk by storm following the Battle of the Red death, bringing changes and revolution to every aspect of life, with dragons to spare. But he lost a few things in the process, and one of those losses finds a mob of Viking amputees breaking into his house to steal him away to a very odd celebration. Rated for drinking, mild language, and mild gore. Oneshot.


His morning began as it ought to have: he was in bed, warm, and could doze beneath a mound of freshly cleaned furs in the knowledge that he'd been granted the day off. No smithing, no early morning flying, no training, no chores, no _anything_. Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, for the first time he could remember (when he wasn't sick or unconscious) had absolutely nothing scheduled for an entire day. He intended to use his time well: beginning, of course, with a mysterious ritual he'd never really gotten the chance to try: a 'lie in'. He'd decided that he rather liked the whole thing, and remained half asleep through the sun's arrival, and well into her rise to the noontime sky.

And so, he was understandably surprised when the mob came to kidnap him.

Having lived with a dragon for nearly a year, he'd actually been able to ignore the noise and the house-rocking rather well, until the jostling floorboards betrayed him and knocked him out of bed.

"Woah!" His eyes bulged out of sleep suddenly and he snatched at the edge of his bed in a vain attempt to avoid the floor. He went sprawling anyway. He crawled on all fours around to where he kept his prosthetic foot, only to find that it wasn't there. "What?" He looked under his bed, behind the side table, but there was nothing there. The house shook again. He poked his head up over his bed and towards his desk, but he couldn't see his foot anywhere. His room wasn't _that_ big. Where could it possibly have gone? Toothless was nowhere to be seen (Hiccup had heard him leave early that morning for breakfast with Thornado, but nothing since) and all Hiccup could hear was that gods-forsaken _racket_. What were they trying to do, shout down his house?

Picking up a pair of crutches that he hated to use but kept for emergencies, Hiccup hobbled his way out to the stairs. "Dad, what's going on?" He called, peeking over the edge of the loft. Nothing. His father must've been out making his daily rounds. Sighing, Hiccup scrunched up his face as he carefully set the ends of the crutches down on the step in front of him, and then the next. Suddenly, the house rocked sideways, but his weight was already on the crutches. "Woah!" He lurched and the crutches went flying. Hiccup only just caught the edge of the stairs, and was barely able to keep holding on. Leg and a half flailing beneath him, he suddenly realized that he _recognized_ one of the voices outside.

"_I know you're in there, you sleepheaded knockbrain, now unlock the door!"_

"Gobber?!" He didn't mean for his voice to crack, but ten feet in the air with half a leg missing and rudely awakened by an angry mob, he decided to cut his wayward hormones some slack.

"_Aha, I told ya 'e was still lollygagging in bed," _Gobber seemed to be talking to the group outside. _"Aye, the very one, lad! About time you're up, time's awastin'!"_

"Wasting for _what?!_" Hiccup asked, grappling at the stairs and peering at the drop that looked far longer than he knew it actually was.

"_Best day o' the year, of course! It's time for you to be initiated!"_

"Initiated?" Oh no. He was slipping.

"_You haven't gone deaf too, have you?" _a pause, and then talking to the mob, _"Sorry lads, we might need to start a Dead Ear Day, too." _Some laughter. What in Thor's name was going on? _"Come on, Hiccup! Why your father locks the door is beyond me, now open it up, will you?_"

"I can't, Gobber, I'm kind of, uh, stuck." Yeah, definitely slipping.

"_If you're lookin' for that leg o' yours, I've already had Toothless procure it for me, so don't bother."_

"Toothless _what?!_" Hiccup asked indignantly. "Wha- why would you do that?"

"_Oh, don't sound so worried, 's'not like he betrayed you or anything, it's all in good fun, and he knows it."_

"Right, well," he clawed at the steps, trying to anticipate how much this fall would hurt, "I _really_ can't open the door." Damn, whoever said that fingernails didn't have any nerve endings attached had been _lying_.

"_Rightee-o then, lad, have it your way. Might want to stand back. Oi! Boulder! Put your good fist through this buggar, will you?"_

"Boulder?" Hiccup's eyes widened. An image came to mind of the village giant, a massive, one-armed fellow with mane-like hair. Hiccup heard loud footsteps. "Oh, no."

Boulder's fist smashed into the front door and knocked it off its hinges with a house-rattling _BOOM_. The quake knocked Hiccup off his tenuous hold and he went falling to the ground with a panicked cry. He rolled over onto his back, moaning, and when he looked up from his new vantage point, he could see an upside-down mob of handicapped Vikings peering down at him with grins. Gobber was in front, and was, for some reason, occupying a wheelbarrow.

"Good morning, Hiccup! Happy Stump Day!"

Cheers echoed from behind the blond, and Hiccup confusedly swung himself upside-right to frown at them.

"Happy _what_ day?"

"Stump Day!" Gobber reiterated, this time waving his left arm about in a show, and Hiccup realized with some surprise that his interchangeable prosthetic was gone entirely, leaving only a ruddy skin-colored stump that Hiccup had only ever seen bare once or twice. As he looked around, he realized all of the Vikings standing there, otherwise disparate from each other in age, size, and gender, all brandished a bare stump or two (or three, in Marvin's case, poor guy) and several of them were on wheeled carts of some kind – one man seem to have stolen a children's wooden wheeled horse toy.

"Stump… Day?" Hiccup said, fishing around behind him for his crutches.

"Ah ah, no, none o' that today," Gobber tutted, gesturing toward the crutches, "As I said, you're bein' initiated today, and there's no bother with those cross sticks on Stump Day! Boulder!"

Before Hiccup could respond, Boulder lumbered over with a smile (which didn't really make Hiccup feel any better) and swatted away his crutches before proceeding to heave Hiccup up and onto one of his massive shoulders.

"Stump Day!" he bellowed happily.

"Indeed it is," Gobber wheeled himself forward, "and as his first Stump Day spent as a Berkian amputee, Hiccup here is to be initiated as a new celebrate amongst our proud group!"

"But we're not celibates!" Cried a voice from the back.

"I said _celebrate_, Hogtooth, ye need to clean your ears out again?" Gobber yelled back.

"Don't bother, it'd take too long to clean up the mess," said another voice. Laughter rippled through the crowd.

"Yes, yes, now as I was saying, you lot: Hiccup, our newest member!" He gestured with his good hand up to his apprentice.

The crowd cheered and clapped. Those with only one hand slapped their stumps to the same effect. Some whistled. Hiccup remained bewildered atop Boulder's shoulder until Gobber bellowed some order to the crowd, and before Hiccup could say anything on the matter, he was brought around and plopped unceremoniously into the wheelbarrow next to Gobber. Boulder took up a bar that had been tied between the two handles and began pushing.

Gobber nudged his apprentice with his stump. "Good thing you're only a twig o' a boy, there'd be no room for ye in here," he chuckled.

"Gobber, what is going on?" Hiccup demanded, and did a double take when he realized that Gobber had taken off his prosthetic leg, too. Now that he looked up, there were several other wheelbarrows ambling along in front of them.

"Come on, lad, you aren't that thick, are ye? Stump day! A day of revelry for all Berkians with less than four limbs intact. Best day of the year, and there's no peg legs, hammer arms, or fake limbs otherwise allowed."

"Gobber, I can't _walk_."

"You and I are quite literally in the same boat- er, wheelbarrow, on that one. But if you can't walk and you can't hop, wheels are the only way to go on Stump Day. Now come on, Boulder! Faster!"

"But _why_ are we- Woah!" Hiccup lost his balance and fell over as Boulder picked up his pace to a run and they raced down the hillside with the rest of the wheeling, hobbling, stump-waving crowd of amputees. As they flew down the hill ahead of Boulder's racing pace, Gobber whooped and hollered, and Hiccup eventually wrestled himself into a sitting position, just in time to see Astrid, Snotlout, the twins, and Fishlegs coming up at high speeds.

"Get out of the way!" Gobber gestured widely. The teens scattered just in time to miss collision.

"Hiccup?" Astrid said when his copper hair popped into view, "Where are you going?" She called after him.

"I have no idea!" He cried, voice jarred by the roll of the wheelbarrow. As they zoomed by, he shouted back, "I'll see you later- AHH!" and fell back down into the wheelbarrow as Boulder took a hard corner.

Somewhere along their whirlwind trip, Hiccup had started smiling (riding in a wheelbarrow was actually rather fun, for reasons he didn't quite understand) and before he knew it, they'd reached their destination: a shoreline cove, surrounded by sheer cliffs on all sides except for the outward-facing beach to the ocean, and a the small inlet tunnel that they'd just arrived through.

"What is this place?" Hiccup looked around at the foliage that was sneaking down the rocks and the sandy-pebble beach.

"Codswater Cove. There aren't any cod in the water, though, so I'm not sure what numbskull named it, but we've been meeting here for the past twenty-six Stump Days. But that's beside the point. I think Berta here has a gift for ye,"

A one-armed woman had approached, and was pushing a small rolling stool with her. "Happy Stump Day, Hiccup!" she said, smiling.

"Y-yeah, Happy Stump day to you too, uh, Berta," Hiccup said, moving awkwardly out of the wheelbarrow and onto the stool as Berta motioned for him. "Thank you."

"Ah, don't bother with niceties today, 'sides, Odin knows it's too small for anyone else here. Now, go on, roll yourself up front with everyone else. They'll drink up all the best stuff 'fore we even get a crack at it! Go on, go!" Gobber was using his good limbs to wheel himself forward, and Hiccup got the impression he'd done this a few times. He followed as best he could and soon found himself in the hollow stone, cave-like structure at the end of the cove, the limestone floor and ceiling glowing amber in firelight. There were plenty of other wheel-bound Vikings there, with others who had only one arm. The one-armed ones were laughing at themselves and their comrades as they tried to balance tankards of ale on their stumps with varying amounts of success. Marvin had managed to balance a tankard on both arm stumps and his legless knee. The crowd around him clapped.

"Here," Gobber slammed a huge tankard into Hiccup's stomach and then took one for himself. "Now go find a table. And stop looking like a Terror lost in a hurricane, I'll explain everything in a minute."

Hiccup took a tentative sip at his ale when Gobber wheeled up. "Right then, _Stump Day_, as I dearly hoped you've guessed, is a day specially set aside for the amputees of Berk to celebrate their missing appendages together without embarrassment, fear, judgment, or any codswallop like that."

"But… no prosthetics?"

"None! Let the skin breathe a bit, is the idea. It's rather freeing, really, and everyone here has a stump of their own, so there's never need to feel embarrassed. It's a time to swap stories, drink beer, eat food, and cheer on the ones who've paid up the highest prices – like Marvin there." The Viking in question had now managed to balance _two_ tankards on his knee, and there was more clapping. "And _you_ are the first new member of our club in six years!"

"There's a _club?_"

"As close to one as you'll find on Berk – this cove here, it's a secret, you see. Not too hard to find, so long as you know where the entrance is, but secret nonetheless. We're a little west of Thor's beach, just behind the village."

"Will they be able to hear us in the village?" Hiccup glanced at the rowdy bunch of Vikings around him.

"Maybe. Probably? I don't know. But that's not the point. The _point_ is, you're a new recruit, and you're to be initiated this Stump Day."

"You keep saying that, _initiated_," Hiccup made sardonic quotes with his fingers, "what does that even mean?"

"It _means_ that, among other things, you'll get the best ale offered to you –not that you should drink much of it, I've never seen ye drunk, but by the looks of you it wouldn't take much- you'll have a few dozen hands and stumps to shake, plenty of questions to answer, but most importantly, you get to get up on that stage at sunset," Gobber gestured to a slightly raised plateau of rock at the back of the cave, "and tell the story of how you lost that leg of yours."

Hiccup frowned, "Gobber, everyone already _knows_ how I-"

"Yes, by word of mouth. But _this_ is a chance to tell your own tale, lad, how it all happened from your point of view. We all tell our stories when we're initiated. Or when we lose another limb," Gobber gestured down at his own stump leg. "After that, you'll be officially accepted as a level one member of our club."

"Level one?"

"One limb. I'm level two, as you can see."

"Oh," was all Hiccup could think to say.

"Marvin there is the only level three here. Probably a good thing, of course. He doesn't mind. He's the president of the club." Gobber took a large swig from his tankard, and sighed. "Well, I'll let you gather your thoughts, sundown's in a few minutes." One of his wheels squeaking loudly, Gobber hauled himself away from Hiccup's table.

Hiccup stared down at his ale with a thoughtful frown. He'd never been much of one for any alcohol, so it wasn't much of a temptation. He watched his reflection in the drink anyway, wondering exactly what they expected him to say. _His own story_. It was hard enough remembering what had happened with his leg, much less stringing the thoughts together to tell a _story_.

Sundown came too soon. Those with two hands clapped, those with one hand slammed their tankards loudly and repeatedly on the table, and Marvin somehow brought his one good foot up to his mouth and used his toes to whistle. Hiccup tried very hard not to wince, but was soon distracted by Gobber as the blacksmith wheeled himself onstage.

"Yes, yes, quiet down, you limbless idiots," Gobber said to the crowd. "Now, I know none of us here would ever _wish_ membership of this particular club upon any of our own, but you can bet your last pair of britches that we welcome all those who find themselves a part of our valiant ranks." A round of 'here here's, clapping, and strong nodding went around "And today, _today_," He emphasized with his hands to get the last ones to quiet down,"My own apprentice, son of our Chief, Hiccup Haddock, joins our ranks. Now, I know you all know how he ended up here – most of you were _there_ that day, for Odin's sake. Dragons all around, abeach some foreign island with little to no chance of makin' it back out again…"

As Gobber trailed off into his storytelling voice, Hiccup sat off stage on his stool, completely at a loss as to what he was going to say to these people. The details of how he'd lost his leg – most of them ones that his father had had to tell him about, because he'd never been able to remember otherwise – were unpleasant. Even in Viking company, Hiccup wasn't sure if he wanted to talk about it. There simply wasn't much he felt he could saw. He scanned the crowd. Most of the people here were in their thirties, forties. They could remember the day they'd lost their limbs, and they had embellished stories to go along with it. They enjoyed telling children who 'oohed' and 'awwed' over the amazing tales of battle and sacrifice. But Hiccup? He wasn't sure what to say. What he did have to say, he wasn't sure that he _wanted _to say. He let his hand trail down to his stump and rubbed the end absently, pondering as he often did how odd it was.

"…but the rest I'll leave for him to tell you. So, please welcome our one and only new member this year, Hiccup!" Gobber gestured to Hiccup in a signal for him to come on stage, and he did. The applause compelled him to smile, but only nervously. He made it out to where Gobber sat in his wheelbarrow and settled himself in the middle of the stage. There were a _lot _more Vikings out there once he was on stage, Hiccup thought, clearing his throat. Gobber slapped him on the back and began to wheel away. Just as the applause died down, a voice raised from the back,

"But 'e's _not_ the only new member this year!"

"Wha'?" Gobber stopped and peered to the back, shadowing his eyes. "Rothook, if that's you back there pulling my leg – my _other_ leg – again,"

"But he's right!" A woman's voice, "There's two this year, Gobber!"

Gobber scoffed, nonplussed for a moment. "What other initiate_ is_ there?"

"The one who's been trying to glare a hole through Bort's head this whole time!" Rothook piped up. All heads turned to Bort, who was looking around himself, and a small commotion that had arisen in that corner of the cove. Hiccup and Gobber were frowning, craning their necks to see across the floor in the darkening sky behind the torchlight.

"Night fury!" Someone called. "Get down!" Sure enough, two huge green eyes popped up from behind Bort's head, and a handful of black ear plates perked up when they spotted Hiccup.

"Toothless!" Hiccup was smiling, and stood up unsteadily on his right foot. "Hey, bud!" The dragon bounded over, his tongue lolling all the way, and rammed into Hiccup's stomach playfully, picking him up off the ground and licking what he could.

"Oh, that's right," Gobber was smiling, "He's a bit of a stumper now too, isn't 'e? But… Can dragons even be a part of the Stump Club?" He paused, having never faced this particular dilemma before. When no one said anything, he looked over to Hiccup. The boy stood there, looking back at Gobber with innocent eyes as he was licked from foot to face by his big black dragon who happened to have only half a tail. "Oh, what the Hel, 'course they can." He tossed his hands in the air, and another round of cheering began.

"Here that, bud? You and me are part of a _club._" Hiccup said. Toothless cocked his head, curious, and licked Hiccup's face again.

"But since the rest of us are Vikings, Hiccup, why don't you do the talking for both o' ye." Laughter rippled through the crowd, and Hiccup laughed with them. He gently pushed Toothless away from his face so he could see the crowd. It didn't seem so big, anymore.

"Well, I think I ought to start with him," Hiccup said, patting Toothless' nose. "By all rights, Toothless joined this club long before I did, anyway, and… that's entirely my fault." A sudden, solemn hush fell over the room. Of all the people there, Hiccup was the only one who could say it was his _fault_ that someone else ended up here. "I was determined to shoot down a dragon. So I made a bola launcher and decided that I would shoot down the best dragon in the skies." He patted Toothless' shoulder, but couldn't look at the dragon. "And so I did. When I found him, he was all… bloodied up. Scarred. Hurt. If I were any real kind of Viking, I would have killed him right there." Toothless seemed to be fully aware of what Hiccup was talking about, but he didn't look bothered at all. "But I realized then that all of it, the blood, the scars that he'd have, the fear… it was my fault. And I couldn't live with that. So, I cut him free." Hiccup laughed, and finally dared another look up at his audience. "He gave me the scare of my life for my trouble, but at least he left my face intact." A few laughs. "After that, I found out that what I'd done had a little more lasting damage. His left tail wing, sheared off." He gestured, and Toothless brought his tail around for all too see. "He needs that tail to fly. I'd shot him out of the sky, and hurt him so he'd never fly again. And I couldn't live with that, either. So I decided to fix it." He looked up at Toothless, who trilled encouragingly at his rider.

"Anyway. I'll spare you the details on the rest of that, you've all seen his new tail – although I'll tell you, working out the kinks on a prosthetic leg is bad enough, but a leg that _flies_ is much harder." He heard Gobber in particular laugh at that one.

"As for me, well… I don't remember too much. During the battle of the Red Death, Toothless and I bated the dragon into following us. I planned to use a trick I learned from Toothless when he fought off a pack of Terrors from his lunch." He paused and turned to Toothless. "Who knew your greedy stomach would end up saving the day, huh, bud?" Toothless grumbled, and the crowd laughed. "Dragons aren't so fireproof on the inside. I waited until the Red Death had gathered gas in the back of his throat, enough to send off in a stream of fire, and then Toothless turned around and ignited it. It all backfired on him, but he couldn't stop. He exploded when he landed, as I'm sure you all remember." Hiccup paused, searching his memories and idly scratching Toothless' side. "After that, it's a bit of a blur. We flew up to escape the explosion, and we hit the tail of the dragon. That's where I was knocked out. But my dad and Gobber filled me in on the rest.

"As far as we can tell, my leg broke when I hit the dragon's tail, and would have been fine if that had been all. But I was falling. I would have died, but Toothless… he flew after me, into the fire, and… grabbed me." His tone died, and he paused to look down. "He saved me. I would have died if he hadn't grabbed me and absorbed the fall, blocked out the fire with his wings. But he grabbed me by the leg. Dad tells me the healers found teeth marks around where they had to… cut it off. With the bone already snapped, Toothless grabbing me just… well, it wrenched it all around beyond repair," Hiccup said it quickly, trying to avoid visualizing it. He knew a few people there, including Gobber, had seen it, and they looked grim. Hiccup thought there should be at least a little humor, and chuckled as he said, "I suppose I'm a luckier than most of you, I was asleep through the whole thing," although it wasn't as funny as he'd meant it to be. "When I woke up, it was… a shock, that's for sure." He took a breath, and surprised himself when he began to smile. "But you know what? Even then, I knew it would be alright." He looked up at Toothless. "Because my best friend had already shown me what it was like to move on after something like that.

"I suppose… in the end, we're only here with you guys because of what we did to each other. I took off his fin, he took off my leg. I took off his fin trying to kill him, and he took off my leg trying to save me. I helped him fly again, and he's helped me walk and run again." He laughed, "I operate _his_ prosthetic with _my _prosthetic. Maybe the gods have a sense of humor." The laughter returned to the crowd. Hiccup shrugged passively. "And I suppose that all of… this could have been avoided, somehow," He gestured at his stump, and Toothless' jagged tail, "but it's what brought us together in the first place. We're a team because of it. We match, leg for fin. And for what it's worth, if I could go back and trade a stupid old leg in exchange for my best friend all over again, well… I'd do it in a heartbeat."

Toothless garbled loudly and pressed his snout to Hiccup's cheek. Hiccup understood by instinct, and inexplicably, there were tears rising in his eyes. He smiled. "He says he'd do it all again, too."

Hiccup looked down to hide his tears and his flushed face, but the applause roared and made it worse. Toothless had eyes only for Hiccup, and huffed warmly into his human's hair. Hiccup looked up, green eyes into green, and no words need to be spoken. "Thanks, bud," Hiccup whispered, his hand going up to pet Toothless' jaw. He purred.

Gobber was suddenly there, patting Hiccup on the back.

"Alright then, you lot! Let's hear it for Hiccup and Toothless, initiates into the Stump Club of Berk!"

"Hiccup and Toothless!" They all cheered, and clapped for some time afterward, clamoring for more ale and more meat, laughing amongst themselves.

"Well said, Hiccup," Gobber told the boy sincerely as the two headed offstage. "You know, you and Toothless _are_ rather a matching set," he smiled, "and I think it may be the best thing that's happened to Berk in a thousand years." He chuckled. "Definitely the best way to join in on Stump Day if I've ever heard one." He was gone before Hiccup could thank him, so the apprentice only watched him go with a smile. A warble from Toothless made him look up.

"Well, what do you say there, bud? Think you can give me a lift?"

Toothless happily scooped Hiccup up on his back and gave him the pleasant experience of being _taller_ than the rest of the Vikings for once. So maybe it was cheating, and maybe he wasn't using wheels on Stump Day, but he figured that a _dragon_ was unorthodox enough to satisfy the non-prosthetic rules of the day, and even if it didn't, no one would question him. Because the dragon and his boy matched each other too well to be separated.

As the nighttime hours wore on and Vikings drank more ale and began to fall asleep, Toothless escorted Hiccup back up through the rocky passage up to the village. He trilled up at his rider in a sort of private language that only Hiccup could seem to understand, and the boy laughed.

"No, our stumps'll still be there tomorrow, bud. But it doesn't matter."

As they settled into bed that night and Hiccup pulled the covers up around himself, he turned to Toothless and said, "Happy Stump Day, bud." He blew out the candle and settled in. It was a minute or two later before Toothless lifted his head and sent a questioning sound at his friend. Hiccup laughed into his pillow.

"Yes, we can go flying all you want tomorrow, stumps and all."

* * *

A/N: I need to stop writing this oneshots and start actually updating my stories!

Anyway. In an episode of 'Riders of Berk' (We Are Family part 1, I think?) Gobber mentions something called 'Stump Day'. I took 'stump' to mean an amputee's stump, and I of course got wondering exactly what that was, so… here's my take on it. Yup. That's pretty much all I have to say here.

Also, this counts as my headcannon for how Hiccup lost his foot.

Also also, I have never typed the word 'stump' as much as I have in the three hours it took to write this thing.


End file.
